Sylvester James knows what it is to be haunted. His mother died giving birth to him and his father never let him forget it; until the night he was butchered by a werewolf--the night a full moon ruined his life.

Alone in the world, Sylvester is taken in by Michael Winterfox, a Cheyenne mystic. Winterfox, once a werewolf hunter, trains the boy to be a warrior--teaching him how to block out pain, stalk, fight, and kill.

Bit by bit all that makes Sylvester human is sacrificed to the hunt. Now, Sylvester’s hatred has become a monster all its own, robbing him of conscience and conviction as surely as the Beast’s bite. As he follows his vendetta into the outlands of the occult, options become scarce. And he learns it takes more than silver bullets to kill a werewolf…

To kill a werewolf, it takes a hunter with a perfect willingness to die.

This is the resume of the last mailman on Earth. It is the near future, and the modern world we knew has been overrun and destroyed by reanimated corpses who hunt humans for food. Mankind has retreated to small pockets of civilization and practically surrendered to the walking dead. But one man routinely leaves behind the safety and comfort to find the people and things we’ve long abandoned. He battles the elements. He battles his own brewing insanity.

Cheryl and her fiancé Mark, a soldier recently returned from Afghanistan, are on their way back to Denver after a reunion camping trip in the mountains when they receive word an epidemic is spreading like wildfire.

But this is no ordinary virus. Those infected, dubbed “Eaters,” are reanimated corpses whose lust for rotten food quickly turns to an insatiable desire for human flesh.

When Mark becomes infected, Cheryl is forced to venture into this insane new world on her own. Hoping to find her family still living, she strikes out on a blood-soaked journey that forges her will to survive.

A shooting star marks the beginning nightmares for the small town of Crowley’s Point. Those who venture outdoors instantly transform into piles of salt. Is it the result of biological experimentation gone awry? A terrorist’s plot? Or is it the fulfillment of a horrific Biblical prophecy?

Among those stranded in the local hardware store are a newlywed couple who may be hiding a secret, a hard-living family of four who are known primarily for their aversion to the law, and an elderly man that found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the carnage spreads and the mystery deepens, those trapped inside stumble across clues that hint at fallen angels, omens, and widespread bloodshed. And all signs indicate that one of the group who isn’t what they seem.

Will the survivors root out the impostor before it’s too late? Or will they all themselves transformed into piles of salt, blown asunder by Winds of Change?

The debut issue (October 2012) of Nightmare Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, is available to read online or use Send To Kindle. There are 4 short stories, 3 of which can also be listened to.

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Fiction

Afterlife
by SARAH LANGAN

Mary Hogan wrote the word Afterlife in red chalk while the children whispered. There was an urgency to their words, like spoken prayers. “Now, now. Pay attention.” Mary’s prim voice bounced against the dusty attic walls. She was forty-five years old. The time was now. The place was her mother’s townhouse in Astoria, Queens, from which she’d soon be evicted. Magic lived here. So did monsters.

Good Fences

by GENEVIEVE VALENTINE

He thinks at first the streetlight’s back on, but of course not. It’s been dark six weeks. There are already beer bottles piled on the sidewalk every morning from the dropout teenagers who surge in whenever there’s the littlest pool of darkness they can find, and then they smoke and drink and shout all night right under his window when he’s trying to sleep.

Frontier Death Song

by LAIRD BARRON

Night descended on Interstate-90 as I crossed over into the Badlands. Real raw weather for October. Snow dusted the asphalt and picnic tables of the deserted rest area. The scene was virginal as death.

Property Condemned

by JONATHAN MABERRY

The house was occupied, but no one lived there. That’s how Malcolm Crow thought about it. Houses like the Croft place were never really empty. Like most of the kids in Pine Deep, Crow knew that there were ghosts. Even the tourists knew about the ghosts. It was that kind of town.

Haven, Population: 2000.
A place where Johnny sleepwalks the beat, counting down the hours to the end of another police shift. Burying the secret deeper.

But this is the day the world ends. The infection has spread unchecked, and now the dead have domain. Johnny is thrown into a fight to survive. The shattered community around him willing to do anything to stay alive.

But as putrefacted bodies close in, it's the villager's rotten hearts he begins to fear the most ... And beyond them the puppetmasters who started it all.

The walking dead descend upon a paintball competition in the mountains. Two brave young women join forces with two thrill seekers in a terror filled struggle against the undead.

Low on ammunition and supplies, the survivors use anything at hand to fight off the flesh hungry horde. As the party makes their escape they soon realize that there is nowhere to run when the dead Rise and Walk ...

Horror fans, it's time to feast on three FULL novels from Darren Shan! The New York Times bestselling author invites you to devour the first books in each of his best-loved series. Craving something creepy? Explore the Cirque Du Freak, an underworld of grotesque creatures and bizarre beings--truly A Living Nightmare! Want another blood-curdling morsel? Uncover the gruesome untold history of Larten Crepsley, the Cirque's head vampire, and find out what led to the Birth of a Killer. Still have a taste for terror? In the Demonata's dark world, werewolves roam, and Lord Loss, a powerful demon, feeds on the pain and suffering of others. And stick around for dessert, because in a bonus sneak peak of Shan's next series, zombies invade. There's plenty of stomach-turning gore to go around!

Cirque Du Freak #1: A Living Nightmare: Book 1

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In the tradition of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot, Cirque Du Freak is the frightening saga of a young boy whose visit to a mysterious freak show leads him on a journey into a dark world of vampires. Filled with grotesque creatures, murderous vampires, and a petrifying ending, Cirque Du Freak will chill, thrill, and leave readers begging for more.

Birth of a Killer (The Saga of Larten Crepsley)

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The highly anticipated prequel to the New York Times bestselling Cirque Du Freak series!

Before Cirque Du Freak...

Before the war with the vampaneze...

Before he was a vampire.

Larten Crepsley was a boy.

As a child laborer many centuries ago, Larten Crepsley did his job well and without complaint, until the day the foreman killed his brother as an example to the other children.

In that moment, young Larten flies into a rage that the foreman wouldn't survive. Forced on the run, he sleeps in crypts and eats cobwebs to get by. And when a vampire named Seba offers him protection and training as a vampire's assistant, Larten takes it.

This is his story.

The Demonata #1: Lord Loss: Book 1 in the Demonata series

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Grubbs Grady has stiff red hair and is a little big for his age, which means he can get into R-rated movies. He hates history and loves bacon, rats, and playing tricks on his squeamish older sister. When he opts out of a family weekend trip, he never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey into darkness. Hungry demons and howling werewolves haunt his waking nightmares... and threaten his life.

Haunted by a house seen only in her dreams, Ava locates the old plantation house in the real world and makes the mistake of venturing inside. She lands in the middle of an honest-to-goodness ghost story with murderous roots in the Civil War, but in this hellbent house, there are things far worse than ghosts. And one of them is hungry for Ava's soul.

Hellbent House is a novelette length story with an alternate ending, approximately 35 printed pages.

Also included is an excerpt of Randy Chandler's previously out-of-print and hard-to-find novel HELLz BELLz, now available on Kindle and Nook.